Newsbriefs

TACLOBAN CITY

Copra prices down

FOLLOWING the hoopla over a huge demand for coconut water in the United States, coconut farmers in Eastern Visayas are now grappling with a decline in prices of copra, which fell by more than 50 percent supposedly due to a sharp drop in demand in the international market, according to the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

Edilberto Nierva, PCA manager for Eastern Visayas, said copra prices fell from P62 per kilogram to as low as P22 per kg in the region. Prices have been falling in the last three weeks, he said.

Nierva, however, said he was optimistic prices would pick up before the end of the year.

At least 80 percent of the region’s copra output is exported to the United States and Europe, which are in the middle of another recession as a result of bad bank practices.

The rest of Eastern Visayas’ copra production is for the domestic market, said Nierva.

Eastern Visayas, the second largest coconut-producing region in the country, produces from 375,000 metric tons to 545,000 MT of copra every year.

At least 1.2 million farmers in the region depend on the coconut industry.

One of the farmers hurt by the fall in copra prices was Arnel Cadinong of Barangay Fatima in Dulag town, Leyte.

Cadinong, 38, said a decline in prices would mean lower income for farmers like him.

When copra used to fetch high prices, he said he earned at least P20,000 a month. But now, he said he would be lucky to earn P5,000 a month for his wife and four children. Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas

DIGOS CITY

Lightning worries

THE SKIES over the province of Davao del Sur have become a police concern lately following at least three lightning strikes since September that had killed two people.

Now police said they plan to install lightning rods in areas that were likely to be stricken by lightning again, although they didn’t say how they could determine which areas these are.

“We have to initiate measures to prevent people from being harmed when lightning strikes,” said Senior Supt. Vladimir Custer Kahulugan, Davao del Sur police chief.

Just last Tuesday, six people, including three children, were injured when lightning struck the antenna of their TV as they were watching in Sta. Cruz town.

Dr. Almer Lumain, physician at the Davao del Sur Provincial Hospital here, said the victims suffered burns in different parts of their bodies. Two of the victims, he said, were in critical condition.

On Oct. 12, a high school student at the Felipe-Inocencia Deluao National High School in Sulop town died while two of his peers suffered burns when lightning struck them as they were waiting for a ride home.

In September, 32-year-old Margie Matos was killed while her 4-year-old daughter suffered burns in a lightning strike in Bansalan, Davao del Sur.

Kahulugan said police planned to install antilighting devices in the towns where lightning strikes had been reported.

“We might have to place it on top of the hills,” he said.

He did not say how much police planned to spend for the gadgets. Orlando B. Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao